Zombies

Gareth is doing a lot of talking to Bob. The rantings and ravings of a mad man I suppose. He tells Bob that he saw Daryl and Carol drive away. He threaten to go after Sasha next, saying that girls taste better than guys.

He gets mad when Bob won’t react to him, yelling about how he’s being a human being by talking to Bob. Bob is crying, and then starts laughing hysterically. Bob shows them the bite on his shoulder, shouting “I’ve been bitten you stupid pricks – I’m tainted meat!”

Sasha confronts Gabriel, now that Bob, Daryl and Carol are missing. Gabriel swears that he doesn’t have anything to do with this. Sasha wants to know who is out there, and where their people are.

Rick accuses Gabriel of working with someone else. He asks him about the note carved into the church siding (You’ll burn for this). Gabriel’s story is that he always locked the church doors at night. When everything went down, and his congregation came for refuge, the doors were still locked.

This week’s episode, while it did have a few important plot developments, seemed to be a whole lot of nothing. I could probably recap the whole episode in 3 sentences, but what’s the fun in that?

While walking, and walking … and walking, the group hears a man crying for help. Carl whines at Rick that they need to go help. They find a clergyman of some sort trapped on top of a rock being harassed by walkers. They kill the walkers, saving the man.

His name is Gabriel, and he hasn’t killed anyone, human or walker. He has a church, which is where he has survived since it all began, mostly on canned food from a food drive that happened just before it all went down. Rick doesn’t trust Gabriel, and I don’t either. Something’s afoot.

Abraham finds a bus they can fix to continue their journey to Washington. For now, everyone else goes into the church. Gabriel tells Rick about one place he hasn’t scavenged yet, due to a dozen or so walkers. Rick takes Gabriel, Michonne, Bob, and Sasha with him. Before he goes, he warns Carl he is never safe no matter what, and to never let his guard down.

Rick and the others are fashioning weapons out of their clothes and small personal belongings. They plan to ambush whoever comes in to get them. But the Terminans (not my term, that’s what the episode description called them) outsmart them by dropping a flash grenade from the top of the container.

Rick awakens in a giant room alongside Bob, Daryl, Glenn, and four unknown men. It quickly becomes clear that the Terminans are cannibals, and Rick and the others are about to become dinner. The four “nobodies” are quickly disposed of via a baseball bat to the back of the head and a quick throat slit.

Glenn is almost killed twice, but a surprise attack on Terminus halts the plans. The leader goes outside to see what is going on, and leaves the muscle men with Rick and the others.

Those that have not been taken to the meat market are still working on weapons and getting antsy. Maggie and Carl assure everyone that Rick and the others will be back, and they need to be ready. Sasha wants to know what cure Eugene has. Eugene explains that he used to work for the Human Genome Project, and he may have a way to turn deadly viruses into a cure.

Meanwhile, Carol and Tyreese (and Judith) are still on the hunt for Terminus. Carol tells Tyreese that once they find Terminus, she won’t be staying. In trying to avoid a pack of zombies, Carol and Tyreese stumble across a man working the perimeter of the settlement. They tie him up, and Carol goes to check out Terminus.

Carl is eating cereal as Michonne jokes with him. She is wearing normal people clothes, and is acting like a normal person, not the emotionless zombie she’s been all along. They talk and joke about soy milk, and for a minute they seem actually happy. Not a good emotion for Carl, but none really seem to be. Carl says he’d rather drink Judith’s formula than soy milk, and the realization that she is gone sends him back into a funk.

Rick thanks Michonne for making Carl laugh, and tells her she is the friend to him that he cannot be, since he is too busy being his father. Michonne offers to take Carl looking for supplies so Rick can rest up. Rick objects, but Michonne promises him it’s only one day of rest.

As they go from house to house, Michonne is trying to get Carl to laugh again, but she’s basically acting like an idiot. Carl tells her he was laughing on the inside. She tells Carl about her son, and says she could make him laugh all the time. Carl seems shocked that Michonne was ever an actual person. Can’t say I don’t agree. He asked all kinds of questions, which Michonne promises to answer one at a time as they clear each room.

This week’s episode almost plays in Pulp Fiction style (or as I am more familiar with, the Simpsons episode titled ’22 Short Films About Springfield’). We see what has happened to everyone other than Rick, Carl, and Michonne (since we found out their fates last week). One group will walk by a spot and notice something, and then we’ll see a different group having gone that way earlier, causing what we’ve already seen.

It’s difficult to describe without specific details, so hopefully my review will unmuddy the waters for those who I’ve totally confused above. It starts with Beth and Daryl running through the woods. Beth is narrating the scene with passages from a diary she started at some point.

Beth and Daryl are resting, but Beth is intent on doing something. She wants Daryl to track, because he’s a tracker. Daryl is just sitting there saying nothing. Beth goes off on her own, and Daryl begrudgingly follows her. She is convinced everyone is ok, and Daryl is not so bright eyed.

Beth finds some footprints, which she takes as a sign that “they” are alive. Daryl only confirms that they were alive four or five hours ago. Daryl sees some trampled grapes, and determines that the people that were there got scared and took off in a hurry. They find an open area with a bunch of dead walkers. Beth takes this as a sign that the people survived, but Daryl points out blood on a bush that is not from a walker.

One (and maybe the only) complaint I hear a lot about The Walking Dead is that it’s too boring and nothing ever happens. For the most part, I disagree with those assessments. Not this time though. This was a whole hour of nothing.

I was very tempted to just write a two or three sentence recap and just leave it at that, but I doubt that would drive readership. I’ll throw it in at the end for fun. The episode starts by showing the aftermath of the war between The Governor’s team and Rick’s. Basically only zombies remain, and the jail is on fire.

Michonne emerges from the woods and kills some zombies, before she turns two into slaves, much the same as she had when we first met her. She also finds Herschel’s decapitated head, which has turned. She stabs it, and is visibly upset.

She finds some footprints in the mud, but does not follow them. She chooses to go back into the woods. A flashback (as I thought, though it turned out to be a dream) is shown of Michonne in happier times. She is a sophisticated, wine drinking, museum going woman. She has a lover and a son. Slowly her dream changes, and her lover becomes a zombie, and her son disappears. Michonne awakes suddenly in the car she had fallen asleep in.

Back on the move, Michonne has integrated herself in a group of walker, using her zombie slaves as camouflage. She keeps looking at one (maybe a few) of the walkers as though she may know them. Michonne snaps and kills the walker she may have known, and ends up killing every walker around her, including her slaves. She goes back to the main road, and decides to now follow the footprints she ignored the first time.

We begin with The Governor doing what The Governor does best, convincing a camp full of people to attack Rick’s group at the prison. The Governor tells them that they burned down his city and killed his daughter. There a few good people there, but most of them are thieves and murderers.

While The Governor is talking to the camp, a flashback is shown of him knocking out Michonne and pulling a gun on Herschel. He tells his group that he has captured two of the prison’s members, and this will ensure a safe, bloodless transfer of property. He has kidnapped Michonne and Herschel so that Rick will give up the prison in return for their safety.

Everyone agrees to The Governor’s plan. Well all except for Lilly. She overheard The Governor’s speech, and thinks they are fine right where they are. The Governor tells her he is glad she heard (which I’m sure is a lie) and that the prison is the only safe place for them.

Michonne and Herschel are being held captive in a trailer. Herschel tries to convince The Governor that the two camps can live together in peace. Herschel realizes that The Governor has changed, and tells him that Rick has changed as well. If he talks to Rick they can work something out. The Governor is not willing to do this. He can’t live together with Rick and Michonne.

Martinez did in fact rescue The Governor and Megan from the walker pit. They agree to take in his group, under two conditions. Martinez is in charge, and no dead weight. Contribute or be cast out.

The Governor goes on a supply run with Martinez, Mitch, and Pete. They keep finding decapitated bodies with signs on them like LIAR, RAPIST, and MURDERER. They come upon a cabin, and The Governor goes in first.

They can hear some noise in one of the back rooms. It is there that they find not only some walkers, but also the heads on the decapitated zombies. After they have taken care of the zombies, Mitch passes around some beers he found. Mitch and Pete tell The Governor about their military backgrounds. Martinez tells The Governor that it’s a good thing he had that girl and women with him. He doesn’t say exactly why, but it’s clear Martinez either would have killed him or left him in the pit.

Lilly sets up a nurse station in the camp, and Martinez cozies up to Lilly, Tara, and The Governor. Tara is also cozying up to a woman named Alicia. Martinez is a bit buzzed and has The Governor join him on top of a trailer to hit some golf balls.

Carol will be going on a run with Rick for supplies. Lizzie tells Carol that she is glad people come back after they die, because at least they are something. Carol tells Lizzie to fight her fear, and not to be afraid to kill. Meanwhile Rick is either imagining how Carol killed Karen and David, or he actually saw her do it and said nothing. It was hard to tell what picture they were trying to paint.

Tyreese escaped the zombie horde unhurt, but he is clearly not ok. He is convinced everyone back at the prison is already dead, and is displaying some erratic and violent behavior. The gang finds a car covered in branches near a repair shop, and Tyreese’s hasty actions almost gets them killed by walkers.

Michonne can’t understand why Tyreese wouldn’t let go of the walker that had a hold of him. She doesn’t know if he’s trying to get himself killed or what. She tells him that being angry makes you stupid, and being stupid gets you killed.

Daryl finds a battery in the shop, and is putting it into the car as Bob watches on. Bob explains that he was the only survivor of two previous groups, and that his need for booze is what caused the shelves to go down in the store when Zach was killed.

In this episode of AMC’s The Walking Dead Tyreese demands that Rick find out who killed Karen and David. When Rick is not as gung-ho about finding the killer as he feels he should be, Tyreese punches him twice. Rick snaps and beats the holy hell out of Tyreese. Daryl of all people calms the situation.

Everyone that was in the cellblock where the infection first started is now sick, including Dr. S and Sasha. There is no stopping the sickness, but it may be able to be treated with antibiotics. Daryl and Michonne volunteer to go to a vet school about 50 miles away to try and find some medicine. Children and the elderly will be quarantined for their safety.

Tyreese seems to be going a bit nuts, and tells Rick if he doesn’t find the killer today, than Tyreese will find them himself. Meanwhile, Glenn is also sick. Herschel leaves quarantine, but Carl insists on going with him. Rick left Carl “in charge” of quarantine, and it seems to be going to Carl’s head.

Herschel is collecting some berries as Carl stands guard. They find a couple of walkers, but nothing to worry about. Maggie scolds Herschel for being outside, but Herschel knows he can do something to help the infected. If he is risking his life no matter what he does, he may as well do it helping others.